The Council
'' '' ☀"My life spans millennia...legions have risen to test me. You are a blind vermin...contemplating the void between the planes. Crawling in the mud like a worm. My escape is inevitable. My ascension is inevitable. A day, a year, a century, it matters not. I hold the patience of mountains and the will of death. I have seen darkness in all its terrible beauty. I have tasted the undying power and of the shadows. I have become a lord of hate, wrath, rage and power. A magical entity of pure power ever living, never ending. Hearing my song is an aria of malice." The lich flexes his hands, extended long dexterous fingers. “We were once mortal and dreamed of mortal things. Now we are beyond man…and soon, gods. I have seen human nature at its core and there is no light.” "I am a lord of death and destiny. I am Mordenkainen. Fear me mortal and know despair." ~From the Archives of Dominus Magnificum, Grand Maestro of the Halls of Domani and bearer of all stripes. "Archliches are the oldest beings known to exist, originally the council was created during the Crown Wars over ten thousand years ago. Long tired of the unending war, a few elves yearned to gain the power that would allow them end the war themselves. So these few became high mages, sages with unmatched magical power for their time. But they still needed more, as this war couldn’t be ended with normal magic in the span of a single mortal life. So these magi devoted their entire lives to the study of necromancy, and learned the secrets to lichdom from their dealings with the dark gods of the time. These gods gave them the forbidden knowledge needed to ascend past even the most powerful liches, which hasn’t been given to a mortal mind before or since. Using this knowledge, these mages began the arcane ritual. This ritual released a huge storm of necrotic power onto the world; an event now known as the Dark Disaster." "This Dark Disaster destroyed an entire elvish kingdom, and reduced the surrounding area to a barren wasteland. This power also proved too much for the minds of the mages, and they lost all memory of their original purpose and their mortal life, but they had gained the power they had so desired. Enemy of the Gods. Once the gods saw the destruction wrought by the Dark Disaster, they knew they needed to intervene. Celestial agents were sent to destroy these few archliches, but even the most powerful of angels couldn’t fully destroy them. But eventually, after only a few months of destruction, all the archliches were banished to other planes, supposedly to never be seen again." "After they were all dispatched, the gods sought to never allow another mortal to ascend to that degree of lichdom again. They used all their power to hide that forbidden knowledge, and even convinced some of the most evil deities to never to part with the knowledge." Pact-makers. Although all the council was banished and trapped in their own demiplanes, a few of them have learned how to contact mortals in the material plane, though as of yet none have escaped the confines of their prison. By gaining mortal followers, an archlich hopes to free itself and become a ruler of the mortal world. Known members: Ben Hadar, Mordenkainen